The IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee provides a platform for leading practice discovery among electrical engineers who are responsible for campus power distribution systems. In many cases, with research university power systems with upwards of 100 megawatts of base load supplying campuses and academic medical centers, many campus power systems are larger than investor owned, municipal or cooperatively-owned electrical utilities.

The committee, founded in 2013, features open discussion, experience exchange, and solution consideration among thought leaders globally, every other week, in both European and American time zones. It collaborates closely with the IEEE Standards Association and the NFPA Electrical Division through IEEE SCC-18. All teleconferences are upon to the public and can be accessed clicking here: IEEE E&H Committee Teleconference Login

The committee meets every other Tuesday — 15:00 Central European time and 3:00 PM Eastern time in the Americas. It meets online today, August 14th. Login information is linked below:

The International Code Council has received all comments on its proposed changes to Group A codes which includes healthcare facility safety and sustainability concepts for the 2021 International Building Code. Breakout committees are now sorting through the public comments and preparing them for the Group A Public Comment Hearings, October 24-31, 2018 in Richmond Virginia. See: Complete 2018 Group A Schedule. We encourage students, faculty and facility management professionals in the Richmond Virginia area to attend the ICC 2018 Group A Code Hearings October 21 – 31 in Richmond Virginia. (LEARN MORE)

We participate as an observer in the healthcare committee with an eye toward how new proposals with effect design, construction, operation and maintenance of education and university-affiliated healthcare facilities. The record of our work and attention to concepts in play is reported routinely on this site and always on the agenda of our weekly open agenda teleconferences. At the moment there is not much for public stakeholders to do until the Public Comment monograph is released to the public on August 31st. We will be participating in the ICC breakout committee meetings until then.

On August 31st, 11:00 AM we will host a breakout teleconference of our own to sort through all the safety and sustainability issues in play as a result of the public comments. Anyone is welcomed to join this teleconference with the login information in the link below:

Generally speaking, the healthcare facilities affiliated with large research universities are built to the same standard as healthcare facilities everywhere else. We only point out that there are two differences — unique to university-affiliated healthcare systems — that might be brought to bear upon the development of the next revision of the IBC:

University-affiliated healthcare enterprises tend to be the destination for patients that need specialized care. The destination of last resort, so to say, because those enterprises have physicians engaged in leading-edge therapies, and therefore a different (typically, higher) risk profile than most healthcare enterprises.

Essential utility supplies — water, power, telecommunications, etc. — can be complicated by the character of the utilities of the host municipality serving the perimeter of the campus; essentially a city-within-a-city.

All other safety and sustainability concepts are the same, as an examination of the redlines linked above should reveal.

Because the Group A Hearings is such an large undertaking, breakout committees administered by ICC staff have been preparing public input for presentation at the hearings. Several months of work by the healthcare committee is linked below:

The International Code Council released the 2018 Report of the Committee Action Hearings on the 2018 Editions of the Group A International Codes. The 313 page monograph linked below contains the results of the balloting of all Group A codes:

Public comments are due July 16th. These concepts will eventually be incorporated by reference into state building codes and thereby affect #TotalCostofOwnership. We encourage architects, engineers, education facility managers, shop foremen and front line tradespersons to set up a (free) cdpAccess account at THIS LINK to begin commenting on the monograph. Ahead of the July 16th deadline we have set aside a time slot — next Thursday, July 12th, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Eastern time — to explain our comments on all the proposed changes to the 2018 IBC for the 2021 edition. Anyone is welcomed to join this teleconference with the login information below:

Of course, the ICC develops many other consensus documents — it is hard upon the 2019 Group B codes — so we keep the entire ICC suite on the standing agenda of our weekly Open Door teleconferences every Wednesday, 11 AM Eastern Time. Click here to log in.

Most of those standards developers run relatively well-balanced technical committees that make decisions and deliver a leading practice document that can be referenced into public safety and sustainability regulations every three to five years. However it can be a challenge for different engineering and management disciplines to apply the documents when these documents — or parts of these documents — develop out of step with one another. We simply have to know what is going on and when.

Our focus today is on the Article 517 of what will eventually become the 2020 edition of the National Electrical Code. NFPA has now released the transcript of public input for the technical committee updating safety and sustainability concepts for electrical power systems in healthcare facilities:

You may submit your comments directly to NFPA at this link: List of NFPA Codes and Standards. You may also join one of our online markup sessions to “get down into the weeds” about emergent safety and sustainability concepts that will appear in the 2020 National Electrical Code. We typically run through the proposals and prepare comments and limit our interest to concepts that only affect university-affiliated healthcare systems. Login information for the next teleconference on August 14th 11 AM Eastern timeis linked below:

Keep in mind that NFPA 99 Health Care Facilities Code develops one year out of step with Article 517 of the National Electrical Code. NFPA 1 Fire Code and NFPA 101 Life Safety Code — two other codes with parts that apply to the healthcare industry — develop on different cycles and have been covered here in previous posts. We have also identified and discussed ICC, IEEE and ASHRAE consensus documents that cover healthcare facility structural, architectural, electrotechnologies and environmental air systems.

*Except for the National Electrical Safety Code — which is written as a “code” to be referenced into public safety laws , all other IEEE products are developed as “guides” or “recommended practices” that can be referenced into the codes developed by NFPA, ICC and ASHRAE.

The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is the United States Technical Advisory Group Administratorfor thefirst global standard for health care administration; developed by International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee 304 (Click here: ISO/TC 304). The creation of this standard was initiated by UTMB and, if this document is incorporated by reference into public law, or adopted by the private sector as a performance benchmark, it will have significant effect upon health care enterprises in every industry in the US — not the least among them the healthcare delivery enterprises in the US education industry.

The core committee met July 13th at NSF International Headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A summary of the activity at that meeting will be posted here soon. In the intervening time, for information about participating contact Lee Webster (lswebste@utmb.edu).

ISO TC 304 Participation Map | Click on image for more details

March 28, 2018

We have received an update from S. Lee Webster, the global Secretariat for this emergent document:

The next meeting of the various working groups will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania, May 21-25, 2018. Contact Lee Webster for information about how to attend (lswebste@utmb.edu). Ahead of the May meetings, we will be scheduling a live Q&A with Lee during one of our weekly Open Door teleconferences.

“With more than $360 billion spent annually on health care administration in the U.S., reducing costs and streamlining administrative processes in health care is a critical national priority,” said S. Joe Bhatia, president and chief executive officer of ANSI, the U.S. member body to ISO. “The newly formed ISO TC 304 shows great promise in tackling inefficiencies in health care administration worldwide, and ANSI proudly supports UTMB’s leadership role as acting secretariat on behalf of the United States.”

It is rare for a US educational institution to assume leadership at this scale. As an Accredited Standards Developer the UTMB will oversee the creation of standards and technical reports that define effective, interoperable, and comparable healthcare administration practices and metrics among healthcare entities. These practices and metrics will be limited to staff and operational management of healthcare facilities. Excerpts from the standardization project identify the rationale:

Rationale 1: Establishing healthcare administrative standards will reduce the cost of providing healthcare through the widespread adoption of interoperable metrics and practices.

Rationale 2: Reducing the cost of healthcare will make these services more affordable and thereby provide an opportunity for greater access to society.

Rationale 4: Although numerous standards exist for the laboratory protocols, clinical services and patient care functions of healthcare organizations, there are scant standards that address administrative functions or these standards are specific to a particular healthcare entity.

Rationale 9: The healthcare community and its stakeholders are highly receptive to standardization and certification and will adopt approaches from these sources readily.

Those practices and metrics that directly affect patient care and medical research are outside the scope of this standards effort. Clinical performance and patient safety and satisfaction standards will not be pursued by this ASD body. ISO 304 will also not address 1) the management or administration of organizations that practice dentistry, 2) the production and use of medical devices or instruments, and 3) the capture and analysis of clinical medical information or procedures. More detailed information is available in the documents linked below:

Facility managers in university-affiliated medical research and healthcare delivery enterprises who would like to participate in developing the US position are encouraged to contact Lee Webster Lee Webster (lswebste@utmb.edu).

Addendum aa. The indoor air quality procedure has a long history going back to the 1981 standard. Weaknesses in the requirements for identifying the contaminantsof concern, identifying concentration limits and exposure periods, and specifying the percentage of building occupants to be satisfied with perceived IAQ. Although the percentage of building occupants to be satisfied with perceived IAQ may be specified, and the standard requires that it be measured; this measurement usually would take place after occupancy so is often ignored or omitted. This proposed addendum adds requirements for designing to specific targets. The target design compounds and mixtures are specifically identified.

Addendum ab. Indoor CO2 has had a prominent place in discussions of ventilation and IAQ for many years. The relevant issues include the impacts of CO2 on building occupants, the use of CO2 to control outdoor air ventilation rates, CO2 monitoring as an indicator of general IAQ conditions and the use of indoor CO2 to estimate building ventilation rates. This proposed addendum adds a new Normative Appendix D, Estimation of Steady-State Indoor CO2 Concentrations Based on Per Person Ventilation Rates and Occupant Characteristics. The purpose is to describe the estimation of steady-state indoor carbon dioxide concentrations for a given per-person outdoor air ventilation rate.

Addendum ac. Informative Appendix C (Summary of Selected Air Quality Guidelines) in 62.1-2016 was deleted in a previous addendum. This proposed addendumadds a new Informative Appendix C with content supportive of changes to the Indoor Air Quality Procedure (IAQP).

All ASHRAE consensus documents are on the standing agenda of our regular Wednesday, 11 AM Eastern Time, Open Agenda teleconference. CLICK HERE to log in. Additionally, we host an monthly online teleconference for building industry professionals in the mechanical engineering discipline that are active in the education facility market. It should be obvious that we have mastered the stream of technical standards that determine #TotalCostofOwnership in education facilities. The next teleconference is on August 30th, 11 AM Eastern time.

We also encourage students, faculty and facility management professionals to attend ASHRAE technical committee meetings at its next Winter Conference, January 12-16, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (LEARN MORE)

Issue: [12-21]

Category Mechanical, Energy, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel

Posted May 24, 2018

Beloit College

ASHRAE International has released several addenda to its widely adopted standard — ASHRAE 62 | Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality — which specifies minimum ventilation rates and other measures for new and existing buildings that are intended to provide indoor air quality that is acceptable to human occupants and that minimizes adverse health effects. Recently released Addendum i contains significant changes to the scope of this document which are now open for public review and can be accessed on ASHRAE’s Online Standards Action & Public Review Draft page. (Click here)

Comments are due May 27th. ASHRAE invites anyone to comment on the development of ASHRAE 62.1 and any other of its consensus documents. The ASHRAE suite is a swiftly moving suite which effectively sets the standard of care for environmental air systems in education and healthcare facilities. Many of its committees meet twice a year at various locations around the US; the next Annual conference to be hosted in Houston, June 23-27. We encourage workpoint subject matter experts in the Houston area — i.e. design, construction and O&M tradespersons working in education and healthcare campus HVAC shops — to attend this conference and sit in on the meetings of ASHRAE 62.1 (or any other technical committee) to observe how leading practice is discovered.

All ASHRAE consensus documents are on the standing agenda of our regular Wednesday, 11 AM Eastern Time, Open Door teleconference. Anyone is welcomed to join these teleconferences with the login information below:

Addendum h: The standard may be applied to both new and existing buildings but its provisions are not primarily intended to be applied retroactively when the standard is used as a mandatory regulation or code.

Addendum z: Tabulation of requisite ventilation required at the outdoor air intake for many systems.

There are 15 more changes in the batch most recently released. These specifics will find their way into construction documents and commissioning agreements and operations and maintenance budgets.

Comments are due April 22nd. ASHRAE invites anyone to comment on the development of ASHRAE 62.1 on its Online Standards Action & Public Review Draft page. (Click here). We will place these on the agenda of our regular Wednesday, 11 AM Eastern Time, Open Door teleconference. Anyone is welcomed to join these teleconferences with the login information below:

BSR/ASHRAE Addendum 62.1b-201x, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality (addenda to ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2016) This proposed addendum responds to increasing requests for more simplified table for ventilation rate procedure of the standard. It contains a simplified ventilation rate table in Informative Appendix D for use in existing buildings where information for calculating minimum ventilation using Normative Appendix A for multiple spaces is often unavailable.

BSR/ASHRAE Addendum 62.1d-201x, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality (addenda to ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2016) This proposed addendum deletes Informative Appendix D (Rationale for Minimum Physiological Requirements for Respiration Air Based on CO2 Concentration). Appendix D first appeared in 62-1989. Its purpose was to explain the relationship between oxygen and carbon dioxide in spaces. It is based on data from the 1950’s. Newer information is available. The committee is aware of misuse and confusion caused by the information in its present form and prefers to delete this misused appendix now. The committee may add back relevant informative guidance that assists with implementation of the standard in the next version of the standard.

BSR/ASHRAE Addendum 62.1f-201x, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality (addenda to ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2016) The so-called “Multiple Spaces Equation” is very difficult to use, especially for variable volume systems for which there are an infinite number of scenarios with varying airflow, occupancy, supply air temperature, etc., all of which affect system ventilation efficiency. 62.1 includes two options for calculating system ventilation efficiency, a prescriptive approach using Table 6.2.5.2 and a more fundamental approach in Normative Appendix A. This proposed addendum replaces the table approach with two formulas, one used to determine system ventilation efficiency (Ev) and one used to determine minimum primary airflow setpoint intended to be used for VAV systems.

BSR/ASHRAE Addendum 62.2i-201x, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Residential Buildings (addenda to ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.2 -2016) This proposed addendum would make explicit that placing a new fan in a kitchen or bathroom in an existing dwelling unit can address the airflow deficit that would otherwise have existed through Section A3. This has been assumed to be true, but has not previously been made explicit. This proposed change would make this condition more transparent to users.

BSR/ASHRAE Addendum 62.2j-201x, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Residential Buildings (addenda to ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.2 -2016) This proposed addendum would explicitly allow existing buildings to use a branch-circuit overcurrent device as an override even if it is not dedicated to only the ventilation fan in recognition that running a new circuit for the fan in an existing home is not always feasible.

Comments are due October 8th. ASHRAE invites anyone to comment on the development of ASHRAE 62.1 on its Online Standards Action & Public Review Draft page. (Click here). We will place these on the agenda of our regular Wednesday, 11 AM Eastern Time, Open Door teleconference. Anyone is welcomed to join these teleconferences with the login information below:

The NFPA 99 Healthcare Facilities Code committee develops a distinct consensus document (i.e. “regulatory product”) that is distinct from National Electrical Code Article 517; though there are occasional overlap and gaps. It is worthwhile reviewing the scope of each committee:

NFPA 99 Scope: This Committee shall have primary responsibility for documents that contain criteria for safeguarding patients and health care personnel in the delivery of health care services within health care facilities: a) from fire, explosion, electrical, and related hazards resulting either from the use of anesthetic agents, medical gas equipment, electrical apparatus, and high frequency electricity, or from internal or external incidents that disrupt normal patient care; b) from fire and explosion hazards; c) in connection with the use of hyperbaric and hypobaric facilities for medical purposes; d) through performance, maintenance and testing criteria for electrical systems, both normal and essential; and e) through performance, maintenance and testing, and installation criteria: (1) for vacuum systems for medical or surgical purposes, and (2) for medical gas systems; and f) through performance, maintenance and testing of plumbing, heating, cooling , and ventilating in health care facilities.

NFPA 70 Article 517 Scope: The provisions of this article shall apply to electrical construction and installation criteria in healthcare facilities that provide services to human beings. The requirements in Parts II and III not only apply to single-function buildings but are also intended to be individually applied to their respective forms of occupancy within a multi-function building (e.g. a doctor’s examining room located within a limited care facility would be required to meet the provisions of 517.10) Informational Note: For information concerning performance, maintenance, and testing criteria, refer to the appropriate health care facilities documents.

In short, NFPA 70 Article 517 is intended to focus only on electrical safety issues though electrotechnology complexity and integration in healthcare settings (security, telecommunications, wireless medical devices, fire safety, environmental air control, etc.) usually results in conceptual overlap with other regulatory products such as NFPA 101 (Life Safety Code) and the International Building Code.

Public input has been received by NFPA 99 technical committee administration and will be posted for public comment no later than February 27, 2019. Until then, we will be sitting in on the expert discussions hosted by the ICC, IEEE, ASTM, ASHRAE and others. We will slice through them all and host a teleconference for facility managers for university-affiliated medical research and healthcare delivery enterprises on August 23rd, 11 AM. Feel free to login with the information the link below:

It is not too early to begin formulating concepts for the 2021 revision of NFPA 99 Health Care Facilities Code. Some of the concepts we are advocating in Article 517 for the 2020 revision of National Electrical Code (now being debated among several NEC working groups) may be more effectively placed in NFPA 99; though the concepts belong in either document is an issue over which good minds will disagree.

Several workgroups are already convening ahead of the Public Input meetings in Hiltonhead, SC in January 2018; one of which is examining proposals from Standards Michigan and the American Society of Healthcare Engineering for “rightsizing” the healthcare facility building power supply chain. Access to the work in progress of those working groups is available at this link: 2020 NEC Concepts Landing Page

NSF Internationaldevelops a consensus standard for one of the centerpiece safety technologies in educational facilities — NSF 49 Biosafety Cabinetry. This Standard applies to Class II (laminar flow) biosafety cabinetry designed to minimize hazards inherent in work with agents assigned to biosafety levels 1, 2, 3, or 4. It also defines the tests that shall be passed by such cabinetry to meet this standard. NSF 49 includes basic requirements for the design, construction, and performance of biosafety cabinets that are intended to provide personnel, product, and environmental protection; reliable operation; durability and structural stability; cleanability; limitations on noise level; illumination; vibration; and motor/blower performance.

NSF International is one of several ANSI accredited continuous-maintenance standards developers that publishes redlines in the weekly ANSI Standards Action publication. The NSF 49 technical committee has released for public review proposed changes to biosafety cabinetry exhaust alarm system interlocks:

You are encouraged to communicate directly with the NSF 49 technical committee administrator Alan Rose (arose@nsf.org) to set up a (free) account into which you may key in your comments. Send comments to Alan (with copy to psa@ansi.org). We will also place this on the agenda of our next Mechanical Engineering teleconference — August 30th, 11:00 AM — which is open to the public. Feel free to log in the information in the link below:

The committee also meets face-to-face annually at NSF International Headquarters and will do so this week on June 21st, 8:00 AM to 2:30 PM at NSF’s headquarters in Ann Arbor. Remote online attendance by observers is welcomed but must be cleared the NSF International committee administrator Allan Rose (arose@nsf.org). Learn more HERE

Action in the NSF International suite of standards generally track on this page: (Click here). The NSF International suite of standards are a standing item of our weekly Open Door teleconferences every Wednesday, 11 AM Eastern Time, which are open to anyone. Click here to log in.

The education industry provides one of the largest markets for biosafety cabinetry manufacturers — particularly large research universities, university-affiliated healthcare enterprises and K-12 science laboratories. When new research square-footage is budgeted the effective cost of this equipment is often difficult to determine; not just in per-unit terms but the degree to which environmental air management systems are affected.

NSF Internationaldevelops a consensus standard for this technology — NSF 49 Biosafety Cabinetry. This Standard applies to Class II (laminar flow) biosafety cabinetry designed to minimize hazards inherent in work with agents assigned to biosafety levels 1, 2, 3, or 4. It also defines the tests that shall be passed by such cabinetry to meet this standard. NSF 49 includes basic requirements for the design, construction, and performance of biosafety cabinets that are intended to provide personnel, product, and environmental protection; reliable operation; durability and structural stability; cleanability; limitations on noise level; illumination; vibration; and motor/blower performance.

Comments are due May 27th.The public may comment directly on the NSF Online Workspace and/or communicate directly with Allan Rose, (734) 827-3817, arose@nsf.org (with copy of comments to psa@ansi.org

Action in the NSF International suite of standards generally track on this page: (Click here). The NSF International suite of standards are a standing item of our weekly Open Door teleconferences every Wednesday, 11 AM Eastern Time, which are open to anyone. Click here to log in.

NSF 49 Biosafety Cabinetry applies to Class II (laminar flow) biosafety cabinetry designed to minimize hazards inherent in work with agents assigned to biosafety levels 1, 2, 3, or 4. It also defines the tests that shall be passed by such cabinetry to meet this standard. NSF 49 includes basic requirements for the design, construction, and performance of biosafety cabinets that are intended to provide personnel, product, and environmental protection; reliable operation; durability and structural stability; cleanability; limitations on noise level; illumination; vibration; and motor/blower performance.

NSF 49 is undergoing revisions that are relevant to the teaching and research enterprises in the education industry:

RE: Average inflow velocity. The redline (strike and bold) public review document is available at this link: ANSI Standards Action Page 42. Comments are due March 25, 2018.

RE: Inflow canopy velocity alarms. The redline (strike and bold) public review document is available at this link: ANSI Standards Action Page 98. Comments are due March 11, 2018.

RE: Interlocking with building environmental air systems. The redline (strike and bold) public review document is available at this link: ANSI Standards Action Page 22. Comments are due February 11, 2018.

RE: Hood visibility criteria. The strike and bold document for these revisions are accessible at this link: ANSI Standards Action Pages 35-36.Comments are due January 14, 2018.

The public may comment directly on the NSF Online Workspace. and/or communicate directly with Allan Rose, (734) 827-3817, arose@nsf.org (with copy of comments to psa@ansi.org

Action in the NSF International suite of standards generally track on this page: (Click here). The NSF International suite of standards are a standing item of our weekly Open Door teleconferences every Wednesday, 11 AM Eastern Time, which are open to anyone. Login information is available in the link below:

We follow state adaptations of the NFPA and IEEE family of consensus documents that set the standard of care for electrical safety in education facility design, construction, operation and maintenance; starting with the State of Michigan (a state with a $490 billion gross domestic product; and ranked the 13th largest state in the United States from an economic point of view). The education facility construction industry is a significant part of that $490 billion of economic activity.

We have been advocating for changes to the State of Michigan Electrical Administrative Act that currently requires all electrical work valued above $100 to be installed by a licensed journeyman electrician and inspected by an accredited electrical inspector. The $100 threshold was set decades ago and has never been challenged by another other advocacy enterprise representing the user interest. Almost all of the stakeholders on the present Electrical Administrative Board are stakeholders who benefit economically from the $100 threshold. Much of the reason for the apparent imbalance of interests lies in tradition; but also because no user interest has been present to advocate for a change. As we explain in our ABOUT; the user-interest is the only interest advocating for cost-savings. All the other stakeholders in the US standards system are generating revenue from their participation in the US standards system. Making money is easier to understand than saving money.

This advocacy priority was on the Do-List of the original University of Michigan codes and standards advocacy enterprise which was focused on strengthening the voice of the user/owner/final fiduciary in the promulgation of regulations affecting Michigan educational facilities. Of all the trades covered in the parent legislation — Stille-Derossett-Hale Single State Construction Code Act (Act 230 of 1972)— the electrical power discipline is the only discipline in Michigan building technology regulations that sets a dollar criteria for electrical work to be performed and inspected. While we recognize the need for safe installation of the electrical power chain within a building; we propose another criteria for establishing the requirement for a licensed electrician and a licensed inspector should be determined (as it is in all other construction disciplines administered by the Bureau of Construction Codes, a division of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs).

As a consequence of the Governor’s Office of Regulatory Reinvention significant changes to both the Bureau of Construction Codes, a division of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs) have taken place within the past twelve months; which make us optimistic about political support for our proposals. We will be collaborating with our colleagues at Michigan State University to make necessary legislative changes we believe will lower the #TotalCostofOwnership of education facilities in the State of Michigan.

We will refer the Michigan Electric Code, and other state electrical codes the IEEE Education and Healthcare Facilities Committee will host breakout teleconferences with electrical professionals in the education facilities industry as required by the demand for them.

The next meeting of the Michigan Electrical Board is August 16th. We have been attending the meetings in Lansing and have made our proposal to revisit the dollar criteria known to the entire board. Our approach is informal now — during the public hearing section of the meeting. We hope the Electrical Administrative Board will develop another criteria on its own.

Information and communications technology (ICT) is a fast-moving economic space in which a mix of consensus and open-source standards form the broad contours of leading practice. ICT standards tend to follow international developments — more so than, say, fire safety standards which are more familiar to education facility leadership. All school districts, colleges, universities and university-affiliated health care systems have significant product, system, firmware and labor resources allocated toward ICT. Risk management departments are attentive to cybersecurity issues. All school districts, colleges, universities and university-affiliated health care systems have significant product, system, firmware and labor resources allocated toward ICT.

The Building Industry Consulting Service International (BICSI) is a professional association supporting the advancement of the ICT community. This community is roughly divided between experts who deal with “outside-plant” systems and “building premise” systems on either side of the ICT demarcation point. BICSI standards cover the wired and wireless spectrum of voice, data, electronic safety & security, project management and audio & video technologies. Its work is divided among several committees:

You may send comments directly to Jeff (with copy to psa@ansi.org). Additionally, BICSI technical committees meet face-to-face twice a year. The next meeting will be held during the BICSI Fall Conference in San Antonio, Texas, September 9-13 (CLICK HERE for registration information). We encourage ICT subject matter experts in the San Antonio region to participate.

The standard will take the call-handling process from its root. Starting with the call-delivery mechanism of the equipment, which can affect the call handling initiation, it will continue to the actual triage of the call to its dissemination. The goal is to bring the call-handling process into full circle from the initiation of the call through the caller triage and finally into the dissemination of information. This will include the continued support of responders through the dissemination portion.

Comments are due September 3rd. You will find more information about the document and APCO’s public commenting process at the link below:

You may obtain an electronic copy from: apcostandards@apcointl.org. You may send your comments to that email address with copy to psa@ansi.org. All APCO standards are on the standing agenda of our weekly Open Agenda teleconference — every Wednesday, 11 AM Eastern time.

We have resumed our regularly scheduled weekly open door teleconferences during which time we will review standards advocacy priorities — every Wednesday, 11:00 – 11:30 AM Eastern Time. Anyone is welcomed to join these teleconferences from your computer, tablet or smartphone with the login information below: